And the Word Became Flesh: An Exploration of John 1:14

For those of you who want to look at John 1:14 taken apart, here are some ideas that I have drawn up on John 1:14. Basically my exploration of the verse.

Ideas on John 1:14 "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have beheld his glory as of the only begotten son of the Father, full of grace and truth"

And the Word became flesh
-God creates the world out of his endless love
-God creates US and we tend the earth.
-Man falls from grace and into sin
-God loves us even in our despair and sin.
-God comes down to earth in the person of Jesus. As we say in the Creed "For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man."

And dwelt among us
- Jesus is fully God and fully man, though without sin. Flesh blood and bone were in him.
-The Gospels give us full evidence of this.
-The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church supports this.

-"33 And when they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead so they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." (John 19:33-34)

And We have Beheld his Glory
- "But the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as they had been told." (Luke 2:20)
-We see this in the Gloria that the Angels sing to the shepherds and we sing at Mass.
-Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace to men of good will."

As of the Only Begotten Son of the Father
-As we say in the Nicene Creed: "Eternally begotten of the Father
-"Begotten not made"

-As the translation of “Corde Natus Ex Parentis” says, “Of the Fathers’ love begotten.

Full of Grace and Truth

-The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

(Luke 2:40)
-Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

(John 14:6)

Woven

After going to the Rocky Mountain Synod Seinior High Youth Gathering, I want to give my thoughts on it. I met Bishop James Gonia and had a lot of fun there so I decided I may as well talk about what I experienced. This is going to be very sporadic but I just want to get my feelings out on this blog.

The theme this year was "Woven". You will probably be wondering as to what this means so here we go. Woven in the context of the Youth Gathering is how we as the Christian community are woven together in the image we call the Church. We had small groups in which we explored this theme.

I think that the Thomas Mass on Sunday was just beautiful. It really made me think about how much God actually loves me. Saying the Lord's Prayer before recieving Holy Communion was very emotional for me and in saying it, I will admit that I cried saying it. Also, at one point, I was saying the Hail Mary because I am someone who what some might call to be mainfesting the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. As I was saying it for I think about the third or second time, I just broke down because the Thomas Mass is something that for many people there, was just very emotional.

Many teens think that a guy always has to show that he is strong not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally and therefore, crying shows weakness but in reality, I believe it shows that they are either touched by something that is very beautiful, or they are in the midst of some struggle such as losing a high school football game during the playoff season.

As I bring this awkward Blog post to a close, I want to say a few things. For starters, You are enough. No matter how many people say that you are ugly, or worthless, or even a fail at life, you are enough in the eyes of God. What does the word enough mean anyways? In this context, I believe that God says that you are perfect just the way you are and in saying that, there is nothing that God loves more than to see you taking the time to say that someone is beautiful just the way they are because society has decided what beauty is and I think that we as people of faith should challenge that belief that you have to look a certain way, act a certain way, etc to be socially acceptable.

I wish you all a good night

    -David